


Perfection, Of A Kind.

by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)



Series: Epitaph On A Tyrant [2]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Coup d'état, Piotr Vorkosigan Will Overthrow Any Damn Emperor He Pleases
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23132317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels
Summary: Padma Vorpatril knows exactly what it takes to make Uncle Piotr commit treason.
Series: Epitaph On A Tyrant [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662727
Comments: 31
Kudos: 101





	Perfection, Of A Kind.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Epitaph on a Tyrant by W. H. Auden. This fic owes a debt to this [2012 Foreign Policy article](https://web.archive.org/web/20150703125353/http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/18/in-sickness-and-in-health/), which heavily informed my views on Ezar and the political situation on Barrayar.

1.

Negri had demanded only one thing of Piotr: Ezar doesn't die.

Negri's loyalty had only ever been to Ezar. It had never been to Serg. Ezar had favored both ImpSec and the Ministry, but Serg was tied too tightly to the Ministry to maintain that balance. Negri had carved out his own private kingdom with ImpSec, the satiation of his own ambition. He would not sacrifice it solely in the name of Vorish dynastic continuance. Not if he didn't have to. Negri was pleased to be Ezar's arm, but he could not be the arm of a corpse and he knew it. Many panic at the death of an Emperor, but men like Negri plan instead. Piotr had been blindsided by Yuri's betrayal. He hadn't made that mistake again. He has spoken more to Negri lately than even Ezar knows.

The Vor are not the only ones who would lose by Serg succeeding Ezar. Piotr wonders if Ezar has noticed that yet.

A sixteen-year regency is a fallacy. Does Ezar think the planet so concerned with the continuation of his dynasty that they'd risk it all on a child? They only gave it to Ezar in the first place because they wouldn't risk it on a dying old man or on a child. Ezar's a fool.

But Negri is vital, and so Piotr swears. He will not kill Ezar. He will not make any plan that would kill Ezar. It doesn't even hurt to swear it; Piotr knows what he's planned is a fate worse than death for Ezar. He knows which Ezar will pick. Negri is relying on too much sentiment. But Negri isn't the only one.

An hour after Piotr leaves the Residence, the Ministry of Political Education is burning.

2.

Padma can't say he never expected to have Uncle Piotr bang down his door three hours before dawn, but he'd always assumed it would be if Ezar was found dead and Uncle Piotr wanted to make sure Padma wasn't going to split off with his own supporters instead of backing Aral like a proper cousin should. He never expected it to happen while Ezar was still alive.

Ezar's alive. Aral isn't. And soon, Uncle Piotr says viciously, that upstart Serg will die. It's already in motion. It can't be stopped.

Padma isn't sure about that, but he knows better than to contradict Uncle Piotr about anything. The first thing Padma ever learned was how to shut up.

"I'm yours to command, Uncle," Padma says, because he knows what's good for him. He's played the proper Vor lord to Ezar and to Prince Serg, but he knows where his loyalties have to lie. There were three survivors of the massacre. Grandfather is dead. Aral is dead. There's just Padma left. Padma's loyalty doesn't fall back to Ezar; it falls back to Grandfather. He owes it to Aral to avenge his death properly, no matter what that may mean for the Emperor. Padma chooses Uncle Piotr ahead of the Emperor.

And Uncle Piotr survived the Cetagandans. He survived Yuri. He's going to survive Ezar as well. Padma has enough sense to know to pick the winning side.

"Go talk to the Princess," Uncle Piotr orders. "You know her."

Padma does know her, but not well. Still, he knows enough. She loves her son. He won't underestimate what she would do to protect him. "Her condition will be that Gregor isn't hurt," Padma warns Uncle Piotr.

"This planet won't survive a sixteen-year regency," Uncle Piotr says, meaning only that he doesn't want to bother with one. "Will her condition stretch to sending that boy off-planet?"

Padma laughs. "No." Princess Kareen is Vor enough to understand about assassins. Her son is only safe so long as he remains in his position.

Uncle Piotr harrumphs.

"Let the boy be Emperor," Padma suggests. "Who else? No one would pick me. You'd never get the Counts to all agree on anyone but Gregor. Make them all have to agree on a Regent instead. That'd actually be possible."

As long as Ezar is alive, they don't need another Emperor or any Regent at all. But even if Ezar's willing to go along with this stupid idea to be forcibly retired to the countryside and let others rule in his place until he dies, that only buys them a few months anyway. If anyone had faith Ezar would live out the year, no one would be talking about this at all. If anyone had faith Ezar would live out the year, Serg wouldn't have been so eager to murder his most prominent rival. Ezar's illness is the worst-kept secret in this city. And now it's killed Aral.

Padma's _told_ Aral, he's told him so many times, but does Aral ever care who he pisses off? No, he never has. And now he's dead for it, and Padma won't mourn him. He won't. Aral brought this on himself, that infuriating--

God damn you, Aral.

Padma's not Uncle Piotr. He can't hear that Aral is dead and take that and turn it immediately into an eagerness to overthrow the Emperor. Padma's not like that. He's never had to be before.

But Uncle Piotr wants to force Ezar to appoint Padma as the Crown Prince and marry him off to Princess Kareen, so Padma figures he's got to learn how to be like that, and quick, or he's going to end up in worse trouble than Aral was by the end.

This is not how Padma thought he was going to spend tonight or this year or this lifetime. But Uncle Piotr commands and so Padma goes. There's no other option here. Uncle Piotr can get away with murdering Serg. He can't get away with murdering Ezar. If he does it, he won't survive an hour. But he can cut through Ezar's support and use the dangling threads to choke him. Serg has spent the last seven years loosening Ezar's grip. It'd be just like the Great General to swoop in and take advantage of it. Padma's seen enough at Headquarters to know how precariously everything is balanced right now. General Vorkosigan had done the impossible once. No one but him could manage it again. But Padma has no doubts in Uncle Piotr's abilities.

But only enough to depose Ezar. Not enough to treat him like Yuri. It's only Uncle Piotr's son who has died so far. That's not enough to kill an Emperor. Not this Emperor. Not yet. And maybe not any Emperor at all.

But Serg has been kind to them in this, providing so many motives for Uncle Piotr to choose from when he has to convince the rest of the Counts and the General Staff. They'll go along with him in killing Serg. And from there, it's such a short journey to taking the reins away from Ezar. Uncle Piotr won't get any of them to agree to kill Ezar outright. But a quiet death in solitude, a removal from the field, in favor of a child Emperor or an untested Vorpatril upstart? Any opportunist would love it. Uncle Piotr shouldn't have any problem getting that done. Uncle Piotr's really the only one who wants Ezar dead and that's just revenge. If Uncle Piotr waits long enough, Ezar's body will do that for him. And he can make Ezar's last months excruciating in their humiliation. And all the while, he'll have Serg's blood on his hands. That's probably enough for Uncle Piotr's vengeance. 

All Uncle Piotr needs is the whisper of opportunity. All Uncle Piotr needs is Negri's ambition. And all Uncle Piotr needs is a tool with the right bloodline to slide into place to replace Serg. He has all three of them.

And so Padma does what he's always done. He says yes.

3.

The fires are still smoldering at the Ministry when the mutiny at Imperial Service Headquarters is achieved. General Vorkosigan has always been popular there, far more popular than the political officers. He is surgical; there are barely a hundred causalities. The most surprising one is Count Vordarian, at Princess Kareen's request. Padma had passed it along and Uncle Piotr had sniffed and called the request inane, but had accommodated it at Padma's urging. Princess Kareen was in a unique positions to see dangers to their plot. If she thought Vidal Vordarian must be removed, then Padma would agree with her unless given a better reason not to. He'd never liked Vidal anyway. And Uncle Piotr's always hated Cetagandan collaborators. It hadn't taken too much persuasion to add Vordarian to the list.

The members of the Serg's party not caught at Headquarters had found Negri's agents elsewhere. Negri knows well who Serg's friends are. Padma has to wonder how long Negri's had this plan ready for the slimmest pretext.

They run Serg to ground in a lackey's garden and drag him to Vorhartung Castle, home of the Counts. There aren't enough Counts there for a quorum. It doesn't matter. They hadn't had a quorum when they executed Yuri either.

By the time Ezar storms in with the Residence guards, Serg is already dead.

4.

"All of you," Ezar says, looking each one in the face in turn. Twenty-two Counts, outnumbered by members of the General Staff, some standing proud, others beginning to have doubts. There are more Ministers than Ezar would like. Those were supposed to have been his men, each one owing his career to Ezar alone, beholden to no one else. He had chosen men who would look to the planet before they would look to the Vor. They should have been his stalwarts, above the petty frays of centuries of blood feuds, loyal to the ideals of a steady Barrayar and the Emperor who guided them on their path. Even the ones who had chosen to join Serg's party these last few years were simply choosing a steadier path to the future; he had not faulted them even as he had fought them for control of his capital.

The Ministers weren't the Counts, for whom Serg promised chaos, not consistency. But Piotr knew how to turn the knife. And so these men chose their own power ahead of loyalty to their sole patron, secure in the knowledge that Piotr The Bloody would go back to ignoring them as soon as the Crown Prince's body was cold.

All of them he could understand, except for Negri. Negri, who Ezar had trusted above all others. Negri, who Ezar had made. Negri, who showed as much loyalty to Ezar, in the end, as he had to Yuri.

Negri returns Ezar's glare steadily. Ezar hopes Piotr chokes on this conquest as Ezar had.

"We all have our own sons, Ezar," Vortala says uncomfortably.

Ah. So that was how Piotr had convinced them. 

Serg had kept himself to acceptable targets. Even regicide was traditional. But Aral was the first heir Serg had targeted. It had let Piotr repeat the strategies of their past, using the legacy of his dead children to rally Vortala and the rest. Ezar had always favored those who stood by him in the war against Yuri. But those men would always be eager to see Yuri in everyone. Piotr, being the same, had taken advantage of that.

Couldn't they see Serg would never be Yuri? He was a Dorca without a war to fight. He was ambition and seething anger, but had turned to the wrong targets. Ezar had never managed to point him in any useful direction. Serg was too stubborn. Yuri's madness had made him unpredictable and deadly. Serg was predictable. He had only beaten Ezar because Ezar had been too confident in Negri's ability to protect Aral.

And now these traitors think they can dictate terms to a man they've sworn to serve. They think they can go nearly to the edge and then stop. They think they can depose an Emperor and keep their hands clean.

How dare they think Ezar would play Piotr's games. Ezar has lived as an Emperor. He will die as an Emperor, not as some forgotten relic in the countryside. How like Piotr, to engineer a seamless palace coup and still offer Ezar a fig-leaf to maintain his pride. But Ezar is not some idiot Vor lord to be appeased by lies.

"Piotr, if you're going to kill me, do me the courtesy of doing it all at once," he says. "Have you no honor, man?"

Piotr almost takes the bait, but then subsides. Ezar catches a few of his Generals looking over their shoulders at Negri. Ah. Negri must have given them conditions. Negri must be the only man in this room who wants Ezar to live. How unfortunate for everyone. Ezar supposes they could kidnap him and keep him imprisoned in a manor, constantly under guard, constantly worried about how loyal those guards would be to their sworn Emperor instead of these mutinous cowards. Is that what Negri would prefer? Preposterous. Do none of them have the guts to kill him over fears of what a prole upstart might do to them over it? What a disgrace to the Vor.

Ezar does not see Princess Kareen behind him. He does not see her slip her hand into one of the deep pockets of her dress. He only hears her say, "Padma Vorpatril, remember your oath."

5.

Padma's lip twitch. Well, she was right. None of the rest of them were going to do it; they're all too scared of Negri. And he can't fault her for taking revenge. Serg couldn't have been any kinder to his wife than he was to his playthings.

There's a tense moment, everyone waiting to see what Ezar's guards will do. The Headquarters soldiers and the ImpSec guards outnumber the men that Ezar had brought with him, but it only takes one to kill. Princess Kareen has shown them that.

Padma wonders what hypocrites are on his own side, how many of them would be eager to pour all the blame on Princess Kareen, to declare themselves not regicides simply because someone else did it for them. Princess Kareen had done what none of them were brave enough to do. And she had not made any promise to Negri to save Ezar. She's made no promises to anyone.

But Padma, on the other hand, had made a promise to her. "I will remember it, my lady," he says to her. "I will not allow your son to come to any harm."

She gives him a formal nod.

"My lady, will you marry me?" Padma asks in a fit of bravery to match her own. If no one else will step forward, then he will. Padma Vorpatril will continue the plan. It was never going to work, anyway. The second thing Padma ever learned was that defeats can be turned into victories.

He offers her his hand. With no hesitation, she takes it.

They make their oaths.

And then Uncle Piotr steps forward. He bends his knee. He swears fealty.

And the rest follow.

+1.

Kareen watches Vorpatril carefully as he speaks to Gregor. She doesn't trust him. She suspects he'll keep his word to her as carefully as Count Vorkosigan had kept it to Captain Negri.

She's safe for now, but her son still isn't safe. Her son won't be safe until he's the Emperor. Sixteen years, she thinks. That's not very long. That's not too long to watch and wait.

She's Vor. She killed an Emperor. She's married to another one. She's patient. 

She can do anything.

**Author's Note:**

> [this post on dreamwidth](https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1102876.html); [this post on tumblr](https://lannamichaels.tumblr.com/post/612506332553232384/perfection-of-a-kind-2597-words-by-lanna)


End file.
